[Distutils] API for finding plugins

[Ian Bicking]

Jim Fulton wrote:
> Ian Bicking wrote:
> ...
> 
>> * At work we're using an environmental variable ("ACTIVE_SITE") which 
>> changes sys.path (in sitecustomize) and the distutils installation 
>> options.  This is like basing it on $HOME, but a bit more flexible 
>> (since $HOME has a lot of meanings).
> 
> 
> Note, fwiw: Zope 2 uses a similar approach.  ZOPE_HOME points to
> a Zope software installation.  INSTANCE_HOME points to a Zope site.
> Both are typically used to affect the Python path and to find other
> information such as configuration and data files.

Configuration is another interesting question; in the context of a Zope
instance it makes sense.  In the context of a development environment
it... kind of makes sense.  The issue comes up a lot -- how to configure
an environment so that the configuration is usable from an interactive
prompt, from application code, or whatever else -- and I don't have a
good idea of how it should work.  I'm not even sure about specifics, not
to mention configuration in general -- except perhaps that some
convention about configuration could and should be complimentary with
these installation conventions.

>> Are there other ways we can identify the user's intended working set?  
>> I don't think environmental variables are easy to work with on 
>> Windows, and it's a little opaque from a GUI user's perspective.  
>> $HOME isn't granular enough.  Multiple scripts can work, but I've 
>> found it challenging to manage when the binaries in $PATH work, but 
>> potentially with bad side-effects (the discipline of keeping working 
>> sets separated isn't enforced, or even suggested by making it easier 
>> to do the right thing).  Multiple scripts seems the most workable and 
>> transparent from the point of view of a GUI user, and not particularly 
>> bad from the perspective of a Posix command-line user either.
> 
> 
> I don't really follow what you mean by multiple scripts.

That if you have, say, three distinct environments, you'll have three
distinct easy_install scripts, maybe three python programs, and every
library that you install in an environment that includes a script will
have a script local to the environment.  And, I suppose, any library
installed outside of the environment cannot have any of its scripts used
in the environment.

I think with the PYTHONPATH work Phillip has done this duplication of
scripts will not be necessary.


-- 
Ian Bicking  /  ianb at colorstudy.com  /  http://blog.ianbicking.org